The Arrangement

Chapter 1

The dress at the top is Estelle's, BTW.

"May I have this dance, Princess Estelle?"  A boy with bright red hair and freckles asked the blonde girl sulking in the corner of the room.

She reluctantly took the boy's extended hand to let him drag her into the large group of dancers. The boy, who turned out to be an ambassador's son, droned on and on about politics, as if he thought she cared, for three seemingly endless songs. Estelle finally freed herself from him by using the excuse of needing to powder her nose. She immediately returned to her seat to continue people-watching.

The stadium-sized ballroom was visible from her empty table. Bright chandeliers composed of thousands of little white gems lit the enormous room. Floor-to-ceiling stained-glass windows were abundant, broken up by little alcoves and four doorways. Three of the doorways led out to the snow-covered gardens; the last opened into one of the castle's many hallways. Some of the alcoves held flowers, others contained busts of long-dead kings and queens, and the rest were for mini Christmas trees; exact replicas of the large ones in two corners of the room. The life-sized trees stood twelve feet high, decorated with red and gold ornaments, tinsel, ribbon, and magnificent gold stars balanced on the very top. The polished hardwood floor was nearly invisible beneath all the fallen pine needles and mingling guests. If the scent of hundreds of different colognes and perfumes wasn't so overpowering, the ballroom would've smelled like Christmas.

Estelle wanted nothing more than to take off her painful stilettos and go to bed before midnight. However, she would never make it back to her room even if she tried, not with the queen watching her like a hawk. Her mother caught her sneaking out of a ball in Shrillet the year before, and was not pleased with her daughter's behavior. The princess received an extensive lecture about manners and "upholding the Pendragon family name" before being sent back into the ballroom, ears burning with shame and eyes full of anger.

Before she could plan an escape route, another person stood in front of her. "Hey," he said with a confident smile. "Can I sit with you?" The young man gestured to the empty chair on her right. He had a strong jaw and pasty skin. Windswept brown hair- which only a select few can pull off- nearly covered his soulful blue eyes. His thin lips turned up in a smirk she couldn't decipher. He would've been tall, maybe six foot three, if he didn't slouch so much. The princess nodded as he held out his hand, presumably for her to shake it. When she looked at his hand in disgust, he dropped it and bowed. "Oops, my bad. I'm Oliver, by the way." He sat down, leaning back far enough for the front legs of the chair to lift off the ground.

They sat in silence for a while; Oliver watching the princess, his eyes the color of the sky meeting the ocean. She turned to stare at the ball-goers laughing, dancing, gossiping, and drinking.  Her youngest sister, Madison, was taking the spotlight on the dance floor by putting her hours of ballroom dancing lessons and even more hours of practice to good use. Madison's long, curled brown hair and the lavender tulle of her ballgown spun around her, making it seem like she was flying.

"So," Oliver finally broke the silence. "I hear your birthday is coming up."

"Congratulations, you have ears." She snipped.

He ignored the jab. "Are you excited?"

"Given the fact that my birthday party last year was such a horrible disaster, no. I'm dreading it, actually. Everyone thinks it's perfectly okay to give me a Christmas present in place of a birthday present. It is not, in fact, okay. Birthdays and Christmas are two different things you just can't combine." The annoying smirk was finally wiped off Oliver's face, but was replaced with a blank stare, which was even more aggravating. Estelle guessed he didn't have much experience in talking to women. After a minute of awkward silence, she nearly exploded. "Aren't you going to say anything?"